Runway incursions are a major problem and a top commercial aviation safety concern. This problem exists in all conditions, but is exacerbated by low and reduced visibility conditions, such as at night or in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). Runway incursions decrease surface operations safety, and increase the risk of an on-ground traffic conflict and related aircraft incident or accident. Currently, aircraft pilots or ground vehicle operators often have little or no first-hand information for determining what traffic is a problem or poses a potential problem. For example, airport moving map displays are provided by the Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) on aircraft such as the Boeing 777, and are integral with the navigation displays planned for Boeing the 787. However, these current airport moving maps only display an aircraft's own position, not runway status or traffic information. Pilot awareness of runway status (e.g., unoccupied, occupied, in-use, restricted, etc.), as well as pilot awareness of related traffic information relevant to the movement of his or her aircraft, can prevent or mitigate runway incursions and traffic conflicts.
Current airport moving maps with ownship position provide desirable safety benefits, but do not provide runway traffic information and runway status. Instead, pilots must rely on information/communication from air traffic control (ATC) and/or radio transmissions that may be missed, untimely, incomplete or inaccurate. Therefore, novel systems and methods that provide pilots a quick, easy, and unambiguous way to determine runway status and traffic conflicts or potential conflicts during taxi, takeoff, and approach/landing, provide increased safety benefit, and would have utility.